A friend from the tiny island of Aruba, just 17 miles off the coast of Venezuela, yesterday shared a photo of a blackpoll warbler that had just arrived there. The same morning, he found black-and-white warblers, American redstarts, and blackburnian warblers that had appeared in the same migrant wave.

It is good news to know that these birds, smaller than chickadees, have safely made it halfway across the hemisphere. Most of them will probably continue on to places on the South American continent after they have spent some time refueling and resting on Aruba.

It was also timely, as Partners In Flight (PIF) recently released an important new report, The 2016 Landbird Conservation Plan. PIF is a 150-member coalition of conservation groups and agencies collaborating across the borders of the U.S., Canada, and Mexico to study birds through monitoring and assessment tools and development of conservation priorities lists. The report shows that North America has 1.5 billion fewer birds now than in 1970.

That is a staggering number to consider.

One of the species that has been hardest hit is the blackpoll warbler, the very species that our friend photographed on Aruba. Blackpoll warblers nest across the boreal forest region of North America from Alaska across Canada and south into the mountaintops of Maine and New England, and even as far south as the highest elevations of the Catskill Mountains of southern New York State. They undertake an epic migration, flying for two to three days nonstop from New England over the ocean to the Greater Antilles, where they rest and refuel. Then they set off and fly nonstop over the Caribbean for several days before reaching South America, where they will spend the winter months. But according to the Partners In Flight report, their continental population has experienced the steepest decline since 1970 of any landbird of the U.S. and Canada. At this rate of decline, blackpoll warblers are expected to lose half of their current population within 16 years.

The Partners In Flight report shines a light on 24 widespread landbird species that have lost half or more of their total populations since 1970. Fifteen of those are birds that nest right here in Maine. They include (along with the blackpoll warbler) rusty blackbird, bank swallow, pine siskin, eastern meadowlark, and chimney swift.

The report also describes WatchList species—species of particularly high conservation concern because of a combination of small populations, steep declines, and/or high threats. WatchList species that breed here in Maine include saltmarsh sparrow and Nelson’s sparrow, Bicknell’s thrush, Canada warbler, wood thrush, bobolink, and eastern whip-poor-will.

There is no way to dodge a simple fact from these alarming statistics: we need to protect and restore more bird habitat if we want our kids, grandkids, and future generations to enjoy these same birds and a healthy environment overall.

Our friend on Aruba is fighting to protect the very place (a wetland called Bubali) where that blackpoll warbler stopped to rest and refuel. On such a small island, every piece of habitat is a refuge for birds, especially the migrants that have made a marathon journey from Canada or the U.S. But there are immense pressures to build more and more hotels for tourists from the U.S. and around the world.

Here in Maine, we received the good news a few weeks ago that a large amount of bird habitat for many of the species highlighted in the Partners In Flight report is now protected as the Katahdin Woods and Waters National Monument in the northern part of the state. We also are incredibly fortunate to have much work going on at the community level to maintain, protect, and restore bird habitat, thanks to the groups like the Boothbay Region Land Trust and Chewonki. There are even some town-owned preserves like the Schmid Preserve in Edgecomb and the Wiscasset Town Forest.

But we need more!

Please support more efforts to keep our birds here for generations to come. Learn more about the new Katahdin Woods and Waters National Monument, support local groups like the Boothbay Region Land Trust and organizations that work statewide, like the Natural Resources Council of Maine, which helps pass legislation in support of Land for Maine’s Future funds and whose work has many benefits to birds and other wildlife. And spread the word about this new report and the need for land conservation.

Jeffrey V. Wells, Ph.D., is a Fellow of the Cornell Lab of Ornithology. Dr. Wells is one of the nation's leading bird experts and conservation biologists and author of the “Birder’s Conservation Handbook.” His grandfather, the late John Chase, was a columnist for the Boothbay Register for many years. Allison Childs Wells, formerly of the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, is a senior director at the Natural Resources Council of Maine, a nonprofit membership organization working statewide to protect the nature of Maine. Both are widely published natural history writers and are the authors of the book, “Maine’s Favorite Birds.”